downing



E. DOWNING.

AUTOMOBILE BUMPER. APPLICATION FILED 050.17, 1911.

Patented May 13, 1919.

mwmma AJTOR/VEV bumpers for invented certain inents in hutomobilehumpers, of which the following 18. a specification, reference HooverJuly 18,

and, secondly,

ZhallrwhOm. itmnyc'oacem: p l Be it known that l, Enwnno lDoWNINo, acitizen'ofttheUnited States of America, residing at t tan Francisco, inthe county of San l rancisco'andffitate of California, have new anduseful improve being had to: the accompanying forming a 'part thereof.i, This invention relates to. improvements in automobiles andparticularly to bumpers .ofithe general type of which an example isdescribed and shown in the United States patent grantedlhornas A. 1916,No. 1,191,30fi; and an object of this invention is to proride anautomobile bumper that will protect the car Well in an accident andgenerally act efficiently during collision operation. An other object ofthis invention is to provide a bumper of the kind just referred to whichwill be simple in construction, conipara tively cheap inmanufacture,'and durable and satisfactory in use and 01 oration.

In the drawings illustrating the, principle of this invention and theknown to me of applying that principle, Figure 1 is 'a side View of thefront end of an automobile equipped with my new bumper; Fig. 2 is a planof the bumper do tached; and'lc ig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3, ofFig. 2.,

(1 denotes the chassis, I) a front Wheel and 0 one of the mud-guards ofthe automobile d. The bumper e is formed from a single bar of springmetal, which is, at the ends of the bumper, curved rcarwardly slightlyand bent around pins f, directed, first, inwardly toward each other toform branches 9 spaced from but almost parallel to the main part c ofthe bumper, rearwardly to form a pair of arms h parallel to each otherand having flattened ends 72, formed With bolt-holes it for thereception of bolts h l) by means of which the bumper c isfastened to thechassis or of the car. llhe partsthus far mentioned are-all. shown anddescribed in theHoover patent above referred to.

As is shown at 9, Figs. 2 and 4:, of the latter patent, a strip of metalis fastened to the main bar of the Hoover bumper for the purpose ofportion thereof into. play durin drawings,

that is most lilrely to come a collision. lrleretofore contains; or rApplication filed lilecemher 1?,

j or aga nst W @lwiously t of the. h'lnnper best mode now the ends ofthe bar being reinforcing the same at that g lin'thellooter,pat'entilesoft steel arid" hasibe'cn fastened to theirs it faceof thevmai'n and it has'il en 'found by" experience that, whenthisis-trip of. soft steel is bent Toy-the impact of the huniper againstan obstrncti'on to her bumper (e .=g-., of anauto= in the oppositedirection' this strip (marked has been made :I f

mobile inc in) l H theistrip taltesZa-Iset due tothe fact' that itselastic paratively lowon slight, and, being'in-front of the mainoriinipactreceiying' part of the bumper, the strip; when so bent "andset,-

preyents the lattenrpart of the buniper from, spr nging {back 1 intoplace: "and 'theshoch ofzimpact'z vln"the bumper 6 here n cushioningshown and described, there is-provided. a

strip a o fispring. steel that is fastened; (e. g., the rivets a")to'the rear face of the main part or collision bar 6 of the bumper e andthat is preferably spaced from the latter, as is clearly shown in Fig. 2at he collision bar 6 is that part c which first receives the im pactorblow in time of collision. in collision operation, the main part e ofthe bumper bends back, until the highly elastic, sprin g-steelreinforcing strip a, which thereupon takes up the thrust and supportsand strengthens, the main bar a and, after thepoint of maximumdeformation for that particular instance or collision has been reached,the great resiliency of the spring steel of the strip 6" acts to pressforwardly and restore to its normal shape the main bar (1. Furthermore,during the impact of the col lision, the branches 9 bear against andsupport the curved ends g1 of the main bar 0'.

lln View of steel reinforcing-bar e -maybe made of metal limit andresiliency are come;

it bears against 1 uniform strength throughout, whereby there is avoidedthe use of a bar that is stronger at some particular point tendency tohreakat the Weaker part of the bar upon which the burden of the stressis shown by the stronger part. lhis is an important feature of thisinvention and an important advantage gained by the use of and which 1has a a main bar ofsubstantially uniform strength throughout over a barthat is stronger at one part than it is at another...

l claim:

1. it; bumper of the character describm'l. including; a collision bar;and a reinforcing after deformation.

- t on.

bar vtherefor carried thereby in rear thereof,

, and difi'eringtherefromin physical characistics and qualities, 831dreinforcing .bar beingof spr ng material and having a substantiallygreater I resiliency and elasticity than-the collision bar that .carriessaidreim forcin bar, whereby the latter aids the colhsion ar inrecovering bumperof the character described, including a collision'bar;and a reinforcing bar therefor carried thereby in rear thereo and beingspaced therefron and differing in physical characteristics and qualitiesfrom said collision bar; sai'd'reinforcing bar being of spring materaland havin a substantially greater resiliency and elastlclty than the colforcing bar and forcing bar shares 1n the absorption of its originalshape to insure that the reinsevere collision shocks with the collisionbar'; both said bars being of spring metal and capable of yieldingunderstress and of resuming their initial shape after the stress isremoved, but the-reinforcing bar having asubstantially higher elasticlimit and greater resiliency than has the collision bar and beingarranged to aid the same in recovering its original shape afterdeformatlon. 4. A bumper of the character described, including acollision bar'that is of substantially uniform strength throughout itsactive length; and a reinforcing bar carried thereby in rear thereof andhaving greater resiliency and a higher elastic limit than has thecollision bar by which it is carried.

S1gned atSan Francisco california, this 5th day of December, A. -D.1917, in the presence of the tWo undersigned witnesses.

EDWARD DOWNING.

Witnesses:

B. WILSON, R0Y O. BROOKS.

